West Ham fans back crest change

17 July 2014 10:46

West Ham will sport a newly-designed crest when they move to the Olympic Stadium from the start of the 2016-17 season.

The Hammers conducted a number of online polls amongst supporters to garner opinions on a modern, simplistic design to coincide with the move away from Upton Park in two years' time - with a slight majority voting in favour of the change.

The new crest sees the castle removed from the current design, with 'London' added in an attempt to attract a wider market as the club made a number of small alterations following feedback from fans.

"West Ham United are pleased to report that an independent supporter poll, conducted by SMG YouGov, shows that fans have voted in favour of adopting the Club's updated crest design," the club announced on their website.

"Of the two supporter polls, SMG YouGov reported that 77 per cent of fans were supportive of evolving the Club's crest. The Club therefore had a clear mandate for change. When presented with the new crest's design, 72 per cent of West Ham fans who support change, also voted to adopt the new crest design.

"SMG YouGov's report confirmed that the second stage of the process attracted new respondents and new opinions, while the results showed that an overall 56 per cent majority of fans voted 'yes', in clear support of adopting the new crest.

"The primary, full-colour flat and mono executions.will be the most widely used and will grace the playing shirt from 2016. We are also pleased to report that the popular blue shield with claret hammers will be adopted as a secondary colour-way."

The new crest is another step away from tradition for the east London club who will leave the Boleyn Ground, their home for the last 110 years, to take up anchor residency of the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.

Co-chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold issued a statement thanking supporters for their input, which read: "As a board, we always put the fans' feelings at the heart of our decision making. This is an emotive issue and we have said from the outset that if supporters did not vote for this crest then there would be no change.

"From all the emails and tweets we have seen, there are clearly thousands of different opinions out there. But ultimately, the fans have spoken. We are pleased to have found a route that has been endorsed by the majority of fans so we now plan to follow that guidance."

Meanwhile vice-chairman Karren Brady, who played a major part in securing the Olympic Stadium move, believes the tie-in with a new crest is crucial to develop the club.

"Our priority now is to continue to work with supporters to ensure that when we make our momentous move in 2016, the Olympic Stadium looks and feels like home.

"This has always been and remains a guiding principle for the board in the lead up to the move. Millions of pounds are being invested to make sure the stadium exceeds fans' expectations come the first game of the 2016-17 season.

"The approval of the new crest is a significant step forward in this process and I would like to reiterate my thanks to the thousands of supporters who played their part in helping to devise what will be the 16th crest in our 119-year history."